Monday, 16 February 2015

"My overriding consideration as Leader of the Opposition was in discharge of my duty to safeguard the spirit and intent of the Constitutional provisions which provide for the protection of the Constitution from changes which may not be in the best interest of the Jamaican people. My action, therefore, in accepting the advice of the claimant, regarding the resignation of the senators, in that manner, was to ensure the effective administration of the Government for the people..... The entire situation is regrettable, including the embarrassment caused to Arthur and Chris." ― Opposition Leader Andrew Holness expressing regret at the much-publicized saga including himself and former JLP senators Arthur Williams and Dr. Christopher Tufton**"This is not a simple matter to just call for the resignation of a leader. You have to look at the implications for the Senate in playing its primary roles as protector of the human and political rights of the people. That is its primary role. The Senate must support the Government and reject what is suspect or detrimental to the rights of the people. If you can't depend on it, then those rights will have to be taken away from them, and so the matter must be handled gently. In the final analysis you have to look at who can command eight members in the Senate and give full support at all times." ― Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga on Andrew Holness' future as Opposition Leader in the wake of the recent Constitutional ruling**"Although we want to win and winning is a habit, we also know that performance determines results more than anything else. So we want to focus on the performances and set ourselves specific targets in those games and, whatever the result, we will focus on those targets for individual players, groups of players, and the team as a whole." ― Jamaica's Under-17 football coach Andrew Edwards, on preparing the squad for the Feb 21 and 24 away matches against Costa Rica**"Access to good health care is crucial for the country's well-being. Therefore the issue has now become: how can we continue to sustainably ad adequately finance the health sector, and at the same time, provide satisfactory health care and service to all? We need to be able to mobilize enough resources to finance expenditures for basic public and personal services, without resorting to excessive public-sector borrowing and creation of excessive external debt - and to raise revenues equitably and efficiently." ― PSOJ President William Mahfood bemoaning the gross underfunding plaguing Jamaica's health sector**"I was employed at a time when the industrial climate was begging for deep analysis, and so the thesis of my book is very simple, perhaps simplistic, which is, if you want to build a democracy, you have to build it on the shoulders of the people, and as you build it you must treat those persons right." ― Sociologist and UWI Mona lecturer Dr. Orville Taylor launching his new book, Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets: A Century of Betrayal of the Jamaican Working Class, at the university on Tuesday of last week